Thursday, December 3, 2009

I love TOM

What a cool idea? The idea of TOMS shoes is one I wish I would’ve thought of to say the least.What a simple yet beautiful thought, shoes for TOMorrow for every pair of shoes sold TOMS shoes gives a pair to a child in need.TOMS shoes chief Giver Blake Mycoskie is said to be a social entrepreneur, as someone who clearly transfers his entrepreneurial abilities into positive change and social responsibility.

I bought my TOMS shoes fully aware of the concept after seeing a friend sporting chic black and white polka dot pair.What I did not anticipate was that my navy blue canvas pair of TOMS shoes would appear attached to my feet to everyone I know.I based outfits and activities around wearing them, I loved them so much in the first few weeks after they were delivered to my house.

Not that I don’t love them just the same now, my now extremely worn TOMS shoes find their way to my feet whenever possible but with every falling snowflake it’s becoming less and less practical. But leave it to Blake to come up with a solution to that problem as well, TOMS now offers“Botas,” their version of a boat.

While my TOMS shoes proved to be the most comfortable pair of shoes I owned, what they represented had an even greater impact on me.The concept of helping everyone have shoes is lovely but when I learned that the leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted parasites, which penetrate the skin through open sores I was convinced TOMS shoes were in fact saving the world one pair of shoes at a time and this is what made me never want to take them off.

I want to be as involved as possible with the movement and I’ve quickly realized I’m far from alone.Whenever I’m wearing my TOMS (in my case every time I take a step) I am constantly complimented or questioned about them.I enjoy being a walking advertisement for this company promoting social change .

Who doesn’t want to help children in developing countries have shoes?Think about running, playing and just simply getting around completely barefoot.In addition, many schools in developing countries require shoes as part of the uniform, so no shoes can even mean no education.This terrible reality is remedied by SHOES and with this TOMS shoes saves the world, one pair at a time.

This year during the holidays I plan to buy as many “double gifts” as I can.I have already ordered a pair for my best friend’s (don’t worry she doesn’t read my blog, she looked at it once and said I they were too long) Christmas present.A present for Ellen and a step towards a better tomorrow…perfect.